Pearls

I came across a great diagram showing a cross section to show the difference in the makeup cultured and natural pearls. A cultured pearl has a nucleus of a bead (usually plastic) that the nacre grows onto, which will vary in thickness - ideally around .4mm. A natural pearl is layers upon layers of nacre that grow around natural debris. From the outside they may look the same, but the structure is definitely different!

While scrolling through pages of pearls today for the blog I definitely had in my mind that natural pearls are more expensive than cultured pearls; however I also learned that apart from a very small collectors market in natural (wild pearls), all pearls bought and sold on the retail market are cultured pearls. If interested you can read more about the varieties of cultured pearls HERE

I came across this beautifully gradation of pearls necklace. If you have $50,000 to spend on a necklace, then look no further!

 

 

In my heart my love of whimsy always drives attraction to pieces, and when a friend tagged me in a post of theirs on Instagram I remembered that I should share what I can assuredly say is one of my favourite use of pearls in jewellery by Petrolnilla

Alexis 

Summer Party at Jewel Envy

Hello Sunday Readers,

The eclectic goldsmith group that work at Jewel Envy is not only a group of creative and talented people but it is a great team, too!

We come from every corner of the globe, and we get together everyday at the blue house on Roncy to work hard to make the best jewelry we can to enrich your life. 

Every single one of us has a different background, with our own way to see and design pieces - we are unique!

We not only share a great space, and an incredible and specialized studio, we share our time and our work, too. We love that we do this all together!

Two weeks ago, we had a lovely dinner on the front yard of Jewel Envy. We always share moments with each other for a variety of events in the Blue House. The evening was warm, full of light and we enjoyed every single minute of it.

You can see below a group of photos from the lovely dinner.

From left to right: Patrick Missodey (Bijoux Missodey) from Togo, Africa, with his lovely wife Yolanda, Jerell Reichert (Urban Metal) from Canada, Michiline Roi (Atelier J) from Canada, Shafiq Sarwari (Shafiq Sarwari) from Afghanistan, Zef Radi (Radi Brothers Jewelery) from Croatia, Alexis Kostuk (Glaciale Goldsmith) from Canada, Ivane Thiebaut (It) from France, Helena Perez-LaFaurie (hplafaurie) from Colombia, Akatsuki Siu from Hong Kong with us for her internship.

Alexis, Ivane and Gillian E. Batcher (Pash Jewellery Desing)

Missing in the photos Parul Shrivastava (Paruli Desings) from India, Mauricio Franco (Mutable Jewelery) from Colombia, Jessica Nehme (Jessica Rita Jewllery) from Canada and Hoi Yi Lai (Hoi Yi Lai) from Hong Kong.

I told you before, we are one of a kind!

It was so lovely to socialize and enjoy being together, looking forward to more great time together before the winter comes!

Come and visit us at the Blue House, we are always thinking of you!

Have a nice Sunday

Helena

Latest Gem Dream

Lately in our instagram feed a lot of beautiful tourmaline gems have been popping up that I have been drooling over. While I have seen watermelon tourmaline in person, I have yet to come across intense bicolour or tricolour gems cut into baguettes. I think normally baguette or rectagular shaped gems don't normally catch my eye, but when they are these colours, they're hard to look away from. They would be a dream to combine with a halo of small gems that transition in colour all the way around - can you imagine it?!
-Alexis

 
Indicolite is my favourite blue colour of any gem, it is a distinct colour of tourmaline - a unique and intense deep turquoise blue. We have been following Doug Menadue gems on Instagram for a while and I have noticed he has quite a few drool worthy indicolite gems.

We have just recently started following Imperial Gems Collection, and there you'll spot some lovely bicolour tourmalines.

Hello!

Dear Readers,

I would like to introduce myself - I am Parul, goldsmith and jewellery designer at Paruli Designs and currently working at the fabulous jewellery studio, Jewel Envy!
Please check out some of my work and stop by at the studio to try out one of my pieces on!

Helena's windows

Hello Sunday Readers,

I love beautiful things, we all do! I had the chance of getting in a second hand shop this three nice posters. When I saw them a couple of months ago, I was sure they will be great for my display in the windows on Ronci.
Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s. It was a 19th century art movement.
Two of my posters were painted by Maurice Brazil Prendergast an American, born in Canada in 1858.

The first poster by Maurice Brazil Prendergast called Bathing, Marblehead, is a great watercolor over graphite pencil on paper.
It's a great background for my Shining Fall Collection, at h.p.lafaurie Jewellery Design.
This painting makes me think of the warmth and sun of Springtime, I LOVE little things that shine and make noises.  My silver necklace, pendant and earrings are in constant motion and make sounds when you wear them. Like the Bathing, Marblehead , the sea, the kids, my collection is full of light and warm.

The second poster by Maurice Brazil Prendergast called Sunlight on the Plaza, is another great watercolor over graphite pencil on paper.
In this window I display a necklace in Sterling Silver, 36 inches long. My long necklace has several charm-links, small fishes, stars and more. The green of the watercolor remembers me nature, renewal, energy, those are ones of the many things that I think about when I make jewellery, always something new, something different, something that show my state of mind.

The last window has a canvas with sunflowers. It's not painted by Van Gogh, or Monet , but this sunflowers have the same color and force but on the table you can see pieces of watermelon. The well known sunflowers from the impressionism has on the table only the vase for the flowers.
Maybe I'm wrong, but they are beautiful and the color is strong and gorgeous.  My rings are full of color, very simple in design and look beautiful with the sunflowers too.

 I love my pieces and my displays, I hope you like them too. Come to see us, enjoy the work of a group of goldsmiths that work hard to make the best they can to enrich your life.

Have a nice Sunday

Helena